A Montana Republican said he asked his primary challenger to run against him because “our campaign laws are ridiculous,” and he wanted to raise more money, according to a recording from a campaign event.

Because Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen had a primary, it allowed him to fundraise more than if he had run unopposed. He says his challenger, Logan Olson, supports him and will vote for him in the June 4 primary.

“I do technically have a primary,” Attorney General Austin Knudsen said last week when asked at the event who was running against him. “However, he is a young man who I asked to run against me because our campaign laws are ridiculous.”

Olson filed to run against Knudsen on March 11, and in three finance reports filed for dates March 11 to May 14, listed no contributions or expenditures for his campaign. The only data listed is an about $1,500 filing fee debt to Standard Consulting on his first report, and a debt to Burnt Timber Consulting LLC for $1,500 with a listed purpose of “Bookkeeping and Compliance for Primary Election,” on his second report.

“I did pay Logan’s filing fee and helped him file for office,” Chuck Denowh, a Republican operative, Knudsen donor and owner of Standard Consulting, said in an email to the Associated Press on Friday. “I did so because he asked me to.”

His third report, filed May 15, lists nothing. If Knudsen paid or “promised valuable consideration” to Olson in order for him to run or drop out, he violated Montana law. Two complaints have already been filed from the Montana Democratic Party alleging that “Olson is not a legitimate, good faith candidate for Attorney General,” and that Knudsen already exceeded the limit for per-person fundraising without a primary opponent before Olson declared. 

There is little public information about Olson, but a LinkedIn account says he is an “attorney at the O’Toole Law Firm of Plentywood and Scobey, Montana, as well as the Daniels County Attorney.”

Knudsen is already facing 41 counts of professional misconduct for attempts from his office to undermine the state’s Supreme Court while defending a law about judicial nominations.

The Washington Examiner contacted Knudsen’s campaign and Olson but did not receive a response.

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If Knudsen wins, he will face Democrat Ben Alke, an attorney from Bozeman, in the November general election.

“This sort of conduct from the chief legal officer and law enforcement officer of the state of Montana is inappropriate and I hope people are paying attention because this is just one of several issues with Austin Knudsen,” Alke said on Thursday.